<p dir="ltr">Every year, Joseph Goldstein does a three month silent meditation retreat by himself at his home in Massachusetts. In this conversation you're about to hear, Joseph had just emerged from one such retreat with a bunch of thoughts on what are called the three proliferating tendencies or three papañca to use the ancient Pali term. </p> <p dir="ltr">These are three ways in which we perpetuate an unhealthy sense of self. Joseph has explained that you can think about the process of going deeper in meditation as a process of lightening up or getting less self-centered. You're about to get a masterclass in doing just that. </p> <p dir="ltr">For the uninitiated, Joseph is one of the co-founders of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. His co-founders are two other meditation titans, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. Joseph has been a teacher at IMS since it was founded in the seventies and he continues to be the resident guiding teacher there. </p> <p dir="ltr">In this episode we talk about:</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">The framework for understanding the three proliferating tendencies; the basic building blocks of our experience in the world</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Six things that make up what the Buddha called "the all" </p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">What non-self means and why it's essential to the Buddhist teaching of liberation</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">The two levels of truth: conventional and ultimate</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Why language is so important in conditioning how we experience things </p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">How the three proliferating tendencies provide a very practical guide to understanding how we manufacture our own suffering</p> </li> </ul> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Join Dan's online community <a href="http://www.danharris.com/">here</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Follow Dan on social: <a href="https://bit.ly/3tGigG5">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://bit.ly/3FOA84J">TikTok</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Subscribe to our <a href="https://bit.ly/3FybRzD">YouTube Channel</a></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p>Get ready for another Meditation Party at Omega Institute! This in-person workshop brings together Dan with his friends and meditation teachers, Sebene Selassie, Jeff Warren, and for the first time, Ofosu Jones-Quartey. The event runs October 24th-26th. Sign up and learn more <a href="http://eomega.org/workshops/meditation-party-2025">here</a>!</p> <p dir="ltr">Tickets are now on sale for a special live taping of the 10% Happier Podcast with guest Pete Holmes! Join us on November 18th in NYC for this benefit show, with all proceeds supporting the New York Insight Meditation Center. Grab your tickets <a href="https://www.nyimc.org/event/great-cosmic-joke/">here</a>! </p> <p dir="ltr">To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit <a href="https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris">https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris</a></p> <p dir="ltr">Thank you to our
Actionable Insights
1. Adopt Not-Self Framework
See everything with perfect wisdom, understanding ‘This is not mine. This I am not. This is not myself’ to free yourself from proliferating tendencies and reduce suffering.
2. Curb Proliferating Mental Tendencies
Become aware of, distinguish between, and learn to free yourself from the three main proliferating tendencies (papancha): craving, conceit, and view of self, to create less suffering.
3. Recognize “Mine” Delusion
Notice when you take things to belong to you (e.g., ‘my leg,’ ‘my body’) and understand that this ‘mine’ view leads to suffering when things inevitably change.
4. Identify “I Am” Contraction
Pay attention to the deep sense of ‘I am-ness’ (mana), which manifests as comparing oneself to others or focusing on ‘I am’ across time, as it feels like a contraction and causes suffering.
5. Grasp Non-Self as Designation
Understand that ‘self’ is a designation for the changing process of mind-body elements, like a ‘river’ is a designation for flowing water, rather than a substantial, independent thing.
6. Mindful Action, Predictable Consequences
Recognize that all actions (physical, speech, mind) have consequences, and choose actions not based in greed or hatred to bring about peace and happiness for yourself and others.
7. Deconstruct Experience to Six Elements
Understand that all experience is made up of six basic things: eye/visible objects, ear/sound, nose/smell, tongue/taste, body/sensations, and mind/mind objects, to see the simplicity of ’the all’.
8. Distinguish Conventional from Ultimate Language
Use conventional language like ‘I’ and ‘you’ for communication, but understand it’s a convenience and not the ultimate reality, to avoid being seduced into believing it has substantial reality.
9. Observe with Passive Voice
When observing experience, use the passive voice (e.g., ‘a sound is being heard’) to remove the ‘I’ or subject, which reduces unskillful efforting and highlights the effortless, impermanent nature of experience.
10. Inquire: “What’s Being Known?”
For 5-10 minutes, either sitting or walking, hold the question ‘What’s being known?’ and settle back to recognize what arises (sight, sound, sensation, thought) to experience effortlessness and impermanence.
11. Welcome Awareness of Defilements
Be delighted to see unskillful patterns of mind (defilements) arise, rather than discouraged, because the very act of seeing them clearly is enlightening and frees you from being caught by them.
12. Grasp Elements as Sensations
Understand the Buddhist framework of elements as designations for immediate felt experiences: hardness/softness (earth), movement (air), and warmth/coolness (fire), which provide a simple shorthand for physical experience free of mental proliferation.
13. Label Sensations by Element
During walking, mentally label physical sensations with their corresponding element (e.g., ‘air element’ for movement, ’earth element’ for touch) to cause the sense of ‘I am’ and ‘mine’ to fall away.
14. Witness Experience Disappearing
Shift attention from what’s arising to what’s disappearing, bringing your mind to the ’lip of the flow’ where things vanish (e.g., ‘gone, gone, gone’), making it impossible to hold on and leading to a liberating free flow.